Texas Rangers Blog

The lineups: More days off coming

MINNEAPOLIS – The Rangers have their “regular” lineup on the field for Friday’s game against Minneapolis. By regular, we mean it’s the fourth time in the club’s first eight games the Rangers have run the same lineup on the field.

Get used to variety.

Manager Ron Washington said he’s planning to give 3B Adrian Beltre a day off the field this weekend and RF Nelson Cruz will also get one. While Beltre and Michael Young can simply swap out infield and DH duties for a day, putting Cruz at DH would require some shuffling in order to get OF Craig Gentry in the lineup.

With the Rangers going through a stretch of 10 straight games to open the season, Washington is trying to be extra diligent in resting players to keep them fresh, especially since most of them played nine innings once during the spring. Cruz, who has annually had muscle strains, is of particular concern. Cruz has gone on the DL with muscle strains before the Mother’s Day in each of the last two seasons.